Nintendo Game Chief Sees Better Times Ahead

Nintendo has had a bumpy year. But its legendary game development chief sees reason for optimism.

Shigeru Miyamoto, who spearheaded the development of modern video games with the hit Donkey Kong, Mario and Zelda franchises, sounds upbeat in part because some games that could have helped its struggling 3DS handheld device are available now and selling well.

The 3DS handheld, a dual-screen videogame console capable of showing three-dimensional images without goofy glasses, was marred by a shortage of strong titles and a natural disaster that temporarily crippled the Japanese economy and cast a shadow over the home of Super Mario.

For months afterward, Nintendo was off its footing: the 3DS disappointments led the company to cut its price by 40% in August. Then, in October, the company cut its forecasts and said it expected its first annual loss in more than three decades, due to sluggish sales of five-year old Wii home videogame console.

Since then, three key titles–”Mario Kart 7,” “Super Mario 3D Land” and “The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword”–have been released. Miyamoto ushered all three to market.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Thursday, he said these games represented one of his biggest efforts yet. Fans appear to agree: Sales of the games have been among the best in the company’s history, giving it a forward thrust into the important holiday shopping season.

Miyamoto, speaking through a translator, acknowledged that both Mario titles should have been available for the 3DS at launch.

“We were often asked, ‘What can you do with the 3DS?’ and it was difficult for us to explain in words,” he said. “Now we have Super Mario 3D Land and all we have to say is, ‘Please try it, and you’ll see what the 3DS entails.’”

Miyamoto has been compared to Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs, who died in October after a long battle with cancer. Both men’s charisma and seemingly endless string of hit ideas have led many analysts and investors alike to worry whether their respective companies can survive without them.

Miyamoto said Nintendo is well aware of this, and has created organization structures and a culture it thinks will be able to infuse his type of thoughtful yet fun designs into its products long after he is gone. Though, he noted, he is very healthy and isn’t planning to retire any time soon.

“We have to construct the structure so that the organization so that it can make it without me,” he said. “I should also admit that it might be better without me; I mean that a different approach and different talent might emerge, though I shouldn’t dwell on this because then the article might indeed say ‘Mr. Miyamoto is thinking about retiring,’ because that is not the case.”

Miyamoto did say he would like to focus more time on small ideas that, he said, could blossom into bigger games as time goes on.

In the meantime, Miyamoto responded to criticisms that Nintendo lacks many of the functions Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 and Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3 have in spades: social and competitive networking over the Internet. He said that Nintendo has been working on a gaming network along with social networking capabilities for quite some time.

But Nintendo isn’t behind the curve, he said. Instead, it is being very thoughtful about whatever networking capabilities it offers in order to protect its large audience of children.

“Those children need some special care in comparison to when we are dealing with adult audiences,” he said. Whenever the company has integrated a social technology–such as when it began allowing handheld devices to connect when nearby and share pre-written messages about where each gamer is from and what they like to play–Miyamoto said Nintendo has been very careful about what customers potentially expose themselves to.

“It’s about to what extent we will allow freedom of expression,” he said.

Another thing he says Nintendo isn’t behind on: mobile games. While games like Angry Birds for smartphones and tablets may be all the rage, Miyamoto said Nintendo isn’t going to make its software available for download on those devices.

Why? He prefers buttons and a physical connection to the game.

“Videogames are all about experiences: how you feel and how you experience that particular videogame software application,” Miyamoto said, noting that with the company’s new Zelda game, customers have to move their controllers as if they were slicing with a real sword and blocking with a real shield. “In order to realize the maximum and unique experiences, we fine-tune it and stick to the details.”

That preference for physical experiences extends to Miyamoto’s taste for smartphones. He said that he would buy a BlackBerry, because he likes physical keyboards, but he couldn’t get one. Instead, he has chosen to use a Toshiba smartphone that runs Google’s Android operating system and has a physical keyboard attached.